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Niels Henrik David Bohr,
was born in Copenhagen, Denmark on October
7, 1885. He was the son of a university professor. He earned
his Ph.D. degree from the University of Copenhagen in 1911.
That year he went to England and began to study nuclear
physics with Joseph Thomson and Ernest Rutherford.
Niels Bohr was awarded a Nobel Prize for physics in 1922
for his work on determining the structure of the atom.
Bohr's work combined the quantum theory with the Planck
constant (the ratio between quantum size and the frequency
of radiation from the atom). He suggested that atoms emit
electromagnetic radiation when electrons move from one
energy level to another.
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In 1916 Bohr returned to Holland and accepted a position as a
professor of physics at the University of Copenhagen. Later in his
career he began the study of fission. He demonstrated that uranium
235 is an isotope that splits to form other atoms. He moved to the
United States of America during World War II and worked on the
development of the first atomic bomb. After World War II he returned
to Holland and began work on peaceful uses of atomic energy. Bohr
organized the first Atoms for Peace Conference in 1955. In 1957 he
received the Atoms of Peace Award. Niels Bohr died in Holland on
November 18, 1962.
References
Asimov, I. (1964). Asimov's Biographical Encyclopedia of
Science and Technology: The Living Stories of More than 1000 Great
Scientists from the Age of Greece to the Space Age Chronologically
Arranged. Garden City, NY: Doubleday.
Daintith, J., Mitchell, S., & Tootill, E. (1981). A
Biographical Encyclopedia of Scientists. New York: Facts on
File.
Howard, A.V. (1951). Chamber's Dictionary of Scientists.
London: Chambers.
McGraw-Hill (1966). McGraw-Hill Modern Men of Science. New
York: McGraw Hill.
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